Random musings on the latest events in the world of fantasy, horror and sci-fi - on the big and small screen.

Friday, August 04, 2017

Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Mr. Jackpots, City of a 1000 Planet of the Apes!

Way behind on my reviews as usual, so here's a quick roundup.
Wonder Woman was great, of course, which was especially surprising after how dire Batman v Superman turned out to be. Amazing what a good director can do to turn things around. Hope Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot stay with DC movies for a long time.

Spider-Man: Homecoming was also a lot of fun, though once again the Marvel formula is starting to wear me out. Loved Tom Holland in the role, and Michael Keaton was definitely one of the more menacing MCU villains. But the rest of the movie (even the Robert Downey Jr. extended cameo) was just okay. Hopefully the sequel focuses on Spidey and not so much on his amazing friends.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was as batshit crazy and visually gorgeous as you'd expect from the director of The Fifth Element. But it was nowhere near as fun or emotionally affecting as Luc Besson's earlier movie. The main problem is that Dane DeHaan is a totally bland leading man. The movie would have been much better if Cara Delevingne had been the main hero, rather than relegating her to a damsel in distress for much of the movie.

War for the Planet Apes was just as exciting and visually stuinning as the first two of the reboot trilogy. Woody Harrelson was a great villain and the film has an important (if depressing) message.

On the TV front, Twin Peaks continues to amaze me by being impossible to predict from episode to episode. Probably the highlights so far have been Episode 8 (possibly the most experimental and disturbing hour of TV in recent memory), Kyle MacLachlan knocking it out of the park each episode (despite still not being the Cooper we know and love yet), and seeing how returning characters such as Bobby and Hawk have evolved over the years. A little worried that there's been a lot of filler and seemingly pointless plot threads in the last few episodes, but hopefully David Lynch and Mark Frost pull it together for the finish.